Trump Aide Boasted He Was A Kremlin Adviser 3 Years Before Dossier

Donald Trump’s campaign aide Carter Page boasted he was a “Kremlin adviser” in 2013, years before a dossier about Trump’s Russian connections was prepared during the presidential campaign, Time magazine reported.

Page, a key figure in the Republican-authored memo released Friday that Trump friends claim indicates FBI bias against the president, bragged about his Kremlin connections in an Aug. 13, 2013, letter to an academic publishing about a manuscript he had submitted, according to Time.

The letter appears to undercut the controversial GOP memo authored by Rep. Devin Nunes( R-Calif .) argue that Page was investigated by the FBI after the allegedly biased dossier was assembled in research paid for by Democrats. The information, collected by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, also was funded by Republican opposed to Trump’s candidacy — a fact not mentioned in the Nunes memo.

Page was on the FBI’s radar long before the 2016 Steele dossier, according to Time. The FBI was tracking Kremlin spies trying to recruit Page, then an energy investor traveling frequently to Russia for business.

In 2013, Page met with Russian diplomat Victor Podobnyy at an energy conference in New York, Time reported, citing court documents. The U.S. later charged Podobny with working as a Russian intelligence agent under diplomatic covering. Podobny, in a transcript of a phone conversation to another Russian agent filed in court in 2015, talks about using “empty promises” to recruit an “idiot.” The human Podobny is talking with is identified in the transcript as “Male 1, ” which Page confessed to BuzzFeed was him:

[ Male-1] wrote that he is sorry, he went to Moscow and forgot to check his inbox, but he wants to meet when he gets back. I think he is an idiot and forgot who I am . . . . He flies to Moscow more often than I do. He got hooked on Gazprom thinking that if they have a project, he could rise up. Maybe he can, I don’t know. But it’s obvious he wants to earn lots of money … I also promised him a lot … I will feed him empty promises. This is intelligence method to cheat, how else to work with foreigners? You promise a favor for a favor. You get the documents from him and tell him to go fuck himself .

Page ultimately met with, emailed, and provided “documents” to Podobny about the “energy business, ” according to the case against Podobny. Page told BuzzFeed none of the information was sensitive.

Podobny, protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity, has returned to Russia.

The Steele dossier claims that Page, during a journey to Moscow in July 2016, held secret meetings with a senior Kremlin official and a senior Putin ally that included dialogues about helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton in the presidential campaign. Page has denied the assertions.